All posts tagged Amazon

U.S. online retailer Amazon Inc. has scrapped plans to open one of its new European distribution centers in the second largest Czech city of Brno, and is looking for a new location to meet its goal of building five centers in the region through 2015, the company’s director of European operations said Wednesday.

“We respect the decision taken by the City Council and have suspended the current project in Brno,” Tim Collins said, referring to a recent decision by the city’s council to withdraw its building permit for the planned large-sized warehouse to be located near the city’s international airport.

Disagreements between the city of Brno officials and Amazon centered on delays over issuing permits to construct an off-ramp between the planned warehouse and a nearby expressway. Also some officials opposed re-zoning for commercial use the land on which Amazon had planned to build its logistics facility. Read More »

PRAGUE–The Czech prime minister late Monday said his newly-formed center-left government will back a highway project vital for one of the two distribution sites online retail giant Amazon Inc. is planning to open in the Czech Republic later this year.

Amazon said it plans to invest more than 200 million euro ($271 million) in the country to serve clients in parts of Germany and southeastern Europe. It also plans three distribution sites in Poland.

It said it’s on schedule to open the Polish sites–each covering an area of about 95,000 square meters –but it that it has run into opposition from local communities and some officials in the Czech Republic where it has faced building permit delays. Read More »

Online retail giant Amazon Inc. has ramped up efforts to overcome local objections and planning issues in the construction of two new distribution centers in the Czech Republic scheduled for completion before the 2014 Christmas shopping season, the company’s director of European operations said.

“We are cautiously optimistic that we’re still on track,” Tim Collins told the Wall Street Journal after meeting with officials in the second-largest Czech city of Brno. The e-commerce company wants to start building one of its two Czech logistics sites there early next year.

Amazon plans to open its so-called “fulfillment centers” to process and dispatch customer orders as part of a European expansion. Three other centers are to be built in Poland where two are due to open next year and one in 2015.

The company said it is on schedule to open its Polish sites–each covering an area of about 95,000 square meters, or equal to about 13 European soccer pitches–but it has faced opposition from local communities in the Czech Republic where it has suffered building permit delays. Read More »

Amazon Inc. will use its five new distribution centers opening through 2015 in the Czech Republic and Poland to better reach customers outside its established European markets in Germany, the U.K. Britain, France and Spain, the head of regional operations at the worlds’ largest online retailer said Thursday.

“Getting a strong footprint in Central and Eastern Europe will allow us to go north and east,” said Tim Collins, director of Amazon’s European operations, during a visit to the Czech capital.

The online retail giant is currently finalizing building permits for two new sorting, packaging and shipping sites in the Czech Republic and two more in Poland. The four sites, which Amazon calls “fulfillment centers” for processing customer orders, are due to be fully operational in time for the 2014 Christmas holidays.

“Christmas shopping is always the key season for us,” Mr. Collins said, adding that a third Polish site will open in 2015.

Each fulfillment center will cover an area of 95,000 square meters, equal to about 18 American football fields or 13 European soccer pitches. Each can have multilevel floor plans to expand its capacity. Read More »

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